Concurrent Chat Server

This project is a multi-client TCP server implemented in C, designed to handle multiple clients concurrently using process forking. The server listens for incoming connections on a specified port (8080) and communicates with each client independently. It demonstrates basic server-client interaction, including handling client messages and gracefully managing server shutdown.

Key Features

• Socket Creation: The server creates a TCP socket using the socket() function.
• Binding: It binds the socket to a specific IP address and port using the bind() function.
• Listening: The server listens for incoming connections with the listen() function.
• Forking: Upon accepting a new connection, the server forks a new child process to handle the client communication independently, allowing the parent process to continue listening for new connections.
• Client Communication: The child process handles the communication with the client, receiving a message, processing it, and sending a response back to the client.
• Concurrency: The use of fork() allows the server to handle multiple clients concurrently, making it suitable for applications where multiple clients need to interact with the server simultaneously.

Tech Stack

• C: Programming language used for the server implementation.
• Linux/Unix: Operating system platform for running the server.
• Process Forking: Concurrency mechanism for handling multiple clients.
• GCC: Compiler used for building the server code.
• POSIX Sockets: For TCP connection management.
• Libraries Used:
  • <sys/socket.h>: For socket creation and management.
  • <netinet/in.h>: For IP address and port handling.
  • <arpa/inet.h>: For IP address conversion functions.
  • <unistd.h>: For system calls like fork() and close().
  • <signal.h>: For signal handling, e.g., graceful shutdown.

How to run the application

Prerequisites

• Linux Operating System
• A C compiler
• Terminal/command prompt access

Instructions

1. Clone the Repository

Clone the repository from GitHub to your local machine:

git clone https://github.com/ramankumar7c/Concurrent_ChatServer.git
cd Concurrent_ChatServer

2. Compile the Concurrent_ChatServer

Open a terminal in the project directory and compile the code:

gcc chat_server.c -o chat_server

3. Run the Code

In one terminal window, start the server:

./chat_server

The server will begin listening on port 8080.

4. Connect the Client

In another terminal window connect client to server.

nc localhost 8080

If you want you can connect multiple client to the server, run this code in mutiple terminal.

Now start sending message from cient to server.

5. Disconnect the client

If you want to disconnect any client from server just send logout message from client to server.